Castro 2 May ANPP Closing Address

FL0305183494 Havana Tele Rebelde and Cuba Vision Networks in
Spanish 0055 GMT 3 May 94
FL0305183494
Havana Tele Rebelde and Cuba Vision Networks
Spanish
BFN
[Closing address by President Fidel Castro at the special
session of the National Assembly of the People's Government,
ANPP, at the Havana Convention Center on 2 May -- recorded]

[Text] I am going to speak very briefly. Yesterday, I
expressed some essential ideas on this issue. Today, we heard a
brilliant exposition by Comrade Alarcon that should be
considered a summary of what we have discussed here. I believe
that now the most difficult part begins: the implementation of
the recommendations and duties the National Assembly of the
People's Government [ANPP] has entrusted to the government.

I believe that what was agreed to here is coherent and it
provides a broad, extremely broad, framework in which to make
the most appropriate decisions. Logically, the most difficult
part is the implementation. As I mentioned yesterday, all this
requires a plan and time. Time does not mean that this will be
left up to the Greek calendar, but a minimal time. Some of the
practical applications of the measures discussed are
complicated. Almost every organization involved in the
implementation of these measures needs time. Even the comrades
from the electric service, once it is decided whether to
implement the principle of increasing electric rates, will need
some time to implement them.

Anything having to do with the change of currency is a
complex issue. This requires a lot of imagination, original
thinking in order to implement any measures of this kind in the
most frugal way possible.

This accord has the advantage of flexibility and a broad
scope to allow the government to analyze and consult in order to
take these measures -- not only the measures recommended here
but also those whose adoption might be considered appropriate
within these principles. We have to analyze well which measures
from the relatively long list divulged by Comrade [Finance
Minister] Jose Luis Rodriguez are truly appropriate .

I must repeat what I said yesterday: We have to act so we do
not stop halfway down the road. We have to act decisively. We
have to act so the problem is solved. The worst thing would be
to leave things half solved. We must solve it completely, not
only to guarantee recovery from the excess currency, but also to
ensure progressive improvement in the situation until a time
when we can say: This is it, the moment when we can be sure the
problem is not going to replicate. It would serve nothing to
have to meet here again, in one or two years, to say that we
have a similar situation.

We have to figure out how to avoid that. Therefore, the
measures taken ought to guarantee it. This is of the utmost
importance. It is decisive. We must act serenely, thoughtfully,
speedily; assume responsibility; be courageous; work, explain,
and divulge.

I believe everything discussed here, without exception,
ought
to be divulged through radio, newspapers, and television in
order to attain the people's understanding, or the greater
possible understanding, of what has been said here by several
comrades, and to continue explaining. The media have to help in
explaining the importance of taking all these measures. The
population has to understand. I am convinced the people are
going to understand.

I believe the fact that many aspects of Cuba's history are
well-known, or supposedly well-known, is no reason not to
disseminate as widely as possible Comrade Alarcon's words before
the recess. What he said, with great accuracy and clarity, is
part of the ideological struggle we are waging. They want to
bring capitalist prescriptions to Cuba. There are no such
prescriptions: Even the developed capitalist countries have many
problems they have not solved. What is reported in that magazine
from Florida is evidence of that. Similar things can be said of
the wealthiest capitalists countries. Their unemployment
problems are appalling. They have a special situation where the
economy is growing and the number of jobs, dropping. They cannot
boast of being models to the world when that is the model they
parade before the world.

We have the great merit of resisting and have time in our
favor. We also know what is happening in the rest of the world,
particularly in the Third World, and the dire crises into which
neoliberal theories are dragging those countries. We do not have
a smidgen of neoliberalism or capitalism. We are truly facing a
world completely ruled by neoliberalism and capitalism. This
does not mean that we are going to surrender. This means that we
have to adapt many things to the reality of that world. That we
are doing, but with much equanimity, without relinquishing our
ideals, our goals.

I ask that you have complete trust in what the party and
government do. They are defending, to the last atom, socialist
ideas, principles, and goals. Even if we have to it under
conditions as difficult as these.

I want to tell you that the world is in the hands of the
multinational corporations; the world is entirely in the hands
of capitalism, and it will last a relatively long time; and a
revolution as pure as ours, as firm and committed as ours, is
forced to take those realities and factors into account.

At times, I have talked about the fuel situation, where for
us to be able to explore for fuel, to be able to use it -- if we
find it -- we need to make agreements with multinational
corporations, and we have to adjust ourselves to the interests
of those enterprises, combining them with our own interests. But
these are things that we would not have done if we had had the
capital and technology to exploit those resources.

In other words, even though we have had to make concessions,
we make the conditions... [pauses] the concessions that are
unavoidable in order to survive and to be able to develop
ourselves. Because we are not only talking about living in a
world dominated and hegemonigized by capitalism and imperialism;
we are talking about a world in which our country is blockaded
by the world's most powerful economic, political, and military
power. It carries out any action it wishes to block our economic
work.

Despite this, I must also add, the number of foreign
companies interested in dealing with Cuba increases. These firms
are interested in Cuba's security and stability. I should also
mention that we occupy one of the [pauses] an important place on
the list of countries considered safe for foreign investments.
The number of firms, I repeat, interested in dealing with Cuba
is growing, despite enormous pressure by the United States.

Comrades, I must also say that our problems are not limited
only to internal finances, excess currency, and the problems
that this brings to our daily work. We must constantly face a
great scarcity of resources, the problem involving the purchase
of food for the population, the problem involving the purchase
of medicine for the population, the purchase of fuel for our
economy, the purchase of spare parts and all types of materials,
so that our economy can remain in operation and so our plans can
advance.

A comrade spoke of the very real situation we have, even
with
agricultural tools like plows. He was right when he said our
industry can make plows. That is true. But each one of those
plows requires a certain amount of steel of very different types
that must be purchased for hard currency on the world market. We
have been working without fertilizers. Many times we have been
working without pesticides. Guaranteeing the fuel needed each
day for transportation and agriculture is an agony.

With this I want to say to you that we are working under
very
difficult conditions. But we are not discouraged. We continue to
struggle, invent, and work. We look for solutions. I can assure
you that our country is facing these difficulties, which are not
discussed every day, in an exemplary manner.

We could also say that many times our cane cutters have had
to work barefooted. Many workers have had to carry out their
tasks without proper clothing. The food that is given to the
workers does not always supply the nutrition they need for the
tasks they perform, despite the effort being made to increase
food production and self-sufficiency. We cannot, for a single
minute, forget the extraordinarily difficult conditions under
which we are working.

I believe there was a reason that Alarcon mentioned
Guaymaro.
This is not only Guaymaro; this is the 10-year war in which we
are trying, despite the many shortages and difficulties, to keep
the population from being in need; to see that the population
never lacks even recreation, when it is possible; that children
and their mothers never lack essentials.

I believe our people are truly writing a page in history. I
believe that what we have agreed to here is an example of
courage, of awareness, of how we, without ignoring all the other
things, dedicate ourselves to solving these problems because
solving them helps us continue our struggle. We must keep all
these things in mind. The enemy tries to plant discouragement
and tries to dishearten our people. We must wage a parallel
struggle to encourage, to strengthen them morally, to lift their
spirit of combat.

Just look at the news we hear from all around the world on
the magnitude of the ceremonies marking 1 May. There are places
where, I was told, more than 100,000 people gathered to
celebrate this day. We considered it an appropriate arrangement,
instead of making the great mobilization of all these years and
continuing the style of the 26 July festivities, to meet here
and discuss these problems with which we are giving tribute to
the working class because this is the Revolution of the working
class.

We have met here precisely to adopt all those measures that
will help save the Revolution of the working class. This does
not mean that we will never again meet at the Plaza of the
Revolution to participate in parades. As soon as circumstances
allow, we will parade with even greater enthusiasm than ever.

I believe today we are doing the things that we should do
and
that we are doing them in the way that we should. The comrades
of the government will not rest a single minute in drafting and
implementing all the measures. They will not be able to do all
of them at the same time, I repeat once again. It will have to
be one measure today, another tomorrow, and then another, etc.
We must follow the order of the simplest, then the more complex.

And the first one is going to come out, I believe, this very
week. It is a Council of State decree-law regarding the
confiscation of ill-gotten wealth. [applause].

That decree-law has already been drafted and is being
distributed to the members of the Council of State. It is that
simple. It is seen as an expeditious method, without many
complicated formalities. Now, I do not know where these money
hoarders are going to put what they have because I do not think
they will be able to get away so easily; they who have so
notably and scandalously become rich from the people's sacrifice.

This reminds us of the first years of the Revolution, when a
law was established to confiscate the ill-gotten goods of those
who had grown rich during the tyranny. Later, each of the prices
will have to be analyzed; they will be applied as soon as
possible because calculations must be based on availability and
different formulas.

There will always be doubts, one way or another, as to
whether it would have been better to do it this way or some
other. Because we must also act with a political criterion. We
must also be tactful. Some things are not so difficult [pauses]
so easy to apply.

When cigarette prices are changed, because we must change
them...[pauses] Cigarettes can be one of the main sources for
collecting money. We must consider how many we have; how many
are in production; what do we will do about people with the
standing quota, who are probably the older ones -- I believe
they are 38 and older; and what we will do about those who have
the new quota.

The treatment is not the same today, and it can it be the
same. We must take into account what we will do with the amount
that remains available. We must consider whether all the
consequences would be greater or fewer if we liberate that
product. We must look at it from the political standpoint. We
must figure out the numbers. The collection will not always be
exact. It could happen that, at a set price, those figures are
not met because there was not enough money to purchase them
among those interested in buying them.

That is why some of these decisions about what to do are
unquestionably more complicated and there will always be
opinions: some who will say it was better to do it this way, and
others who will say it was better to do it another way.

It would be nice if a set price were later to be reduced.
But
all these phenomena must be studied because one must also
consider the political sense of each of the things done. We must
also consider salaries, incomes, and the salaries of retired
workers, which usually is not too much. All these factors must
be considered when a decision is going to be made on setting a
price.

There are some areas where there is no alternative. For
electricity, there is no alternative. Because consumption has
increased tremendously. In Havana City it has increased 24
percent. Comrade Marcos Portal explained this very well in great
detail during his television interview. Many people have had to
use electric stoves because we have lacked other types of fuel.
Efforts are being made to find ways to redistribute the
resources in such a way that they can use other fuels that would
make that enormous use of electricity unnecessary.

A quota was established for the use of electricity. It was
met, basically; but a moment came when it was no longer
possible. Portal explained the problems we had with plants and
maintenance. A special effort has been made and continues to be
made and will continue to be made to increase production,
improve maintenance, increase capacities in a way
that...[pauses] But there is no way to satisfy a demand that
increases 24 percent. I believe we can improve in some aspects.

We have gone through tremendous times of outages. Even
broadcasts have been affected. One cannot be sure whether people
are hearing them. They have to be repeated. If you want
something to be heard, you have to broadcast it on Monday, and
then maybe on Wednesday, and then maybe even on Sunday. Our most
important sources of information are television and radio. But
when there are outages, two or three times a week and sometimes
even more, one cannot watch television. Often the radio cannot
be used because there are no batteries. The newspapers are not
enough. Communication today is a problem under the current
conditions.

But I can assure you that no one rests a single moment in
the
search for solutions, economic solutions, in increasing exports
and in the development of all the high priority areas despite
the difficult conditions and the blockade. We are very aware of
how difficult these times are.

These measures that we studied are precisely to help
overcome
these difficult times. That is what we should be doing. I am
sure that is the way that the people of Guaymaro acted. Those
who we know were not there did not hesitate to become combatants
of the 10-Year War. If I am going to compare our current stage
with anything, I will compare it with the 10-Year War. When I
see all that the people...[pauses] Many of these people even had
to fight barefoot, with scarcely any clothing. This does not
mean that we expect people to cut cane barefoot or without
clothes. We must do whatever is possible to [word indistinct]
those resources among the workers.

We could even say that during that war Cubans fought without
weapons. I am sure that those who have a great appreciation for
the great merits of the people and the great value of history
will agree with me when I can say that this struggle does not
remind us of the Sierra Maestra or the Granma expedition; this
struggle reminds us of the 10-Year War. It may be that, in the
future, historians will find this epic as great as that one,
because today we are confronting the hegemony of imperialism on
the world level and the hegemony of capitalism on the world
level. And under those difficult conditions we fight, defending
our ideals, our cause, and our dreams.

We have demonstrated what many thought impossible. After the
collapse of the socialist block and the Soviet Union, almost
four years later, Cuba remains. The country they once called a
satellite has today become a star of heroism, courage,
independence, and light, capable of making history. When history
is written, many will admire how this small country, here in the
Caribbean, only 90 miles from the United States and with a naval
base on its territory, had the courage, the integrity, and the
spirit to wave the banners of independence and the Revolution.

After all these years of experience, we have the conviction
that those banners will continue to wave and will be carried to
victory. In conclusion, that is the reason I can say that some
day, Alarcon, future generations will talk about this assembly
as you spoke of Guaymaro and they will talk about our people as
we have spoken here of the historic Mambis of the War of 1968.
Thank you very much. [applause]
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